Watts, Arthur Egerton (Oral history)

British officer served with Collingwood Bn Royal Naval Division in GB and Gallipoli, 1914-1915. Civilian organised amateur radio operators monitoring German Enigma code signals during Second World War, 1939-1945

REEL 1: Aspects of background in Crouch End, London, 1894-1914: learning French and German; question of military value of Boy Scouts activities; period in France, 1912; stories illustrating enthusiasm for war in Bremen, Germany, 1913-1914; work for family box making firm, 1914. Recruitment as ordinary seaman to Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 4/9/1914: reasons; family reactions. Period with A Coy, Benbow Bn Royal Naval Division at Crystal Palace, 9/1914-1/1915: reactions to land role of RND; promotion to leading seaman; Canada House billets; hammocks; sings, 'Fred Karnos Navy'; basic training including route marches; officers training prior to receiving commissions, 29/12/1914; question of commanding older other ranks; recollections of Charles Bonner VC. Recollections of period with D Coy, Collingwood Bn Royal Naval Div at Blandford camp, 2/1915-5/1915: mud problem; hut accommodation; officers servant and post war relationship; training run illustrating other ranks lack of physical fitness. REEL 2 Continues: improving fitness of other ranks; rifle training; tactical exercises; trench digging competition; relationship with civilians and post war memorial to unit; story of erecting flagpole for George V's visit; messlife. Recollections of voyage aboard Ivernia to Mudros, Lemnos, 5/1915: send off at Blandford; effects of inoculations; knowledge of destination; conditions; visits ashore at Malta; question of U-boat threat. Recollections of period at Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey, 5/1915-6/1915: landing from Hythe at V Beach; amphitheatre nature of beach; Asiatic Annie shell fire; question of beach activity; move inland to rest camp and then into reserve lines near Brown House; fly problem. REEL 3 Continues: sniper problem; absence of shell fire; return to rest camp. Account of attack towards Krithia, 4/6/1915: absence of promised intensive bombardment; failure of French advance on Haricot Redoubt; support role of D Coy; destruction of advancing coys; story of being wounded in leg whilst trying to take ammunition forward; return to trench; evacuation that evening by stretcher; recollections of Hugh Winslow; evacuation from W Beach. Voyage aboard Southland to Alexandria, 4/6/1915-10/6/1915: overcrowding with casualties; development of gangrene in leg and question of adequacy of medical arrangements; story of alarm clock in kit. Recollections of period in hospital at Alexandria, 10/6/1915-14/7/1915: amputation of leg due to gangrene, 14/6/1915; immediate nature of recovery. Voyage on hospital ship Gurkha to GB, 7/1915: conversations with pilot acting as spotter for navy; confusion over telegrams sent to parents concerning seriousness of wound. REEL 4 Continues: confusion over telegrams sent to parents concerning seriousness of wound. Recovery prior to fitting with artificial leg, 1/1916. Background to securing posting as intelligence officer with Near East Section, Naval Intelligence Division at Admiralty House, 3/1916-1919: qualities required; interview with Hall; initial attachment to German Section; logging various reports concerning Turkish coastal defences and effect of British air raids; interviewing German officer in command of Turkish gun positions on Asiatic side of Dardanelles; providing information on coastal conditions on Turkish coast assisting in rescue of escaped POWs led by Lieutenant Commander Cochrane; method of logging reports; monitoring progress of gap in Baghdad railway; attachment of brother to intelligence unit on Lemnos; checking British POWs letters sent to GB to discover coded messages; method of analysing letters of German sailors interned in Chile to discover ship which carried them; questions of calibre of guns sited at Cape Helles and railway guages across Austrian/Russian frontier illustrating work methods; methods of tracking and logging U-boat movements; aspects of careers of officers working with Naval Intelligence Div. REEL 5 Continues: aspects of careers of officers working with Naval Intelligence Div; opinion of Hall; relationship with regular officers; travelling to work; activities as Boy Scout master with Crouch End Troop; relationship with civilians; story of security arrangements whilst taking despatches to Paris peace conference, 1919; question of Room 40; necessity of accuracy in intelligence work; work tracking and logging allied warships movements on world map; detailed knowledge of Turkish coast and question of weeding inaccurate reports; question of exchange of intelligence with army; approach of end of war, 1918; monitoring Goeben and Breslau. REEL 6 Continues: Demobilisation, 7/1919. Value of war experience on returning to work in family box making firm, 1919-1939. Recollections of Naval Intelligence Division role interviewing captured personnel and analysing effects of dead from crashed Zeppelins, 1916-1918. Recollections of his family firm Johnson and Watts war work, 1939-1945: munitions packaging; waterproof emergency food rations packaging; makeshift solutions to problems caused by Blitz damage to factory; role as managing director; lack of profit on government orders; question of return to civilian production, 1945. Role as president of Radio Society of Great Britain, 1939-1945: early interest in radio and obtaining transmitting license, 1927; election as president, 1934-1940; acting as liaison officer to form Royal Air Force Wireless Volunteer Reserve and Royal Naval Volunteer Wireless Reserve; approach by Colonel Lord Sandhurst of MI5 to organise amateur radio operators to listen for German signals; vetting procedure; skills of amateur operators; methods of locating and recording German Enigma code signals and sending results to Box 25, Arkley View, Barnet; recruitment methods; ignorance of meaning of messages taken. REEL 7 Continues: number of operators recruited and value of duplicated or incomplete messages recorded; recruitment of some amateur operators into services; value of work done, secrecy and question of public recognition; liaison role between operators and staff at Box 25, Arkley View, Barnet where messages were collected prior to forwarding to Bletchley.